Legacies and Traditions
by The Reel Lifer
Summary: A Mulletverse future fic. Where the Blue and Gold are different, but no less Blue and Gold. SLASH mention, HET mention, GEN.


**Title:** Legacies and Traditions  
**Fandom:** Justice League  
**Characters:** Junior (OMC), Gold Star (OFC), implied Booster/Beetle, Bug/Skeets, Batman (mention), Robin (mention)  
**Prompt:** "Children"  
**Word Count:** 1117  
**Rating:** G  
**Author's Notes:** Fluff. Pure fluff. Also, part of my "fanfic100" list, which is a thing on LiveJournal where you sign up for a fandom and characters and then write a hundred stories with the list of prompts.  
Set in the Mullet-verse. If you don't know what I'm talking about and have no idea who Junior is, I suggest you check out the previous stories in the series: _Hairy Situations and Situational Hair_, _Midst of Rough Earthliness_, _Discordant Hormoney_, and _Harmonious Discourse_. (But especially _Hairy Situations_, because that's the story he was "born" in.) If you don't want to go read that, then just know that he's the biological (yes, biological) son of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle.  
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**Legacies and Traditions**

She calls herself Gold Star.

She's the Gold to his Blue.

Junior doesn't know what her natural hair color is (yet) but she dyes it blond as homage to her hero and mentor, Booster Gold. It and the star are a sort of visual shorthand that she's his, just like blue and stylized beetles mark Junior as part of what could come to be known as the Blue Beetle legacy.

She calls herself Gold Star because she would never dare to take the name Booster Gold while the original still has use for it. Because Junior's dads are only semi-retired and sometimes they still air out the old costumes and come save the world with them, which is cool because it's kind of like a family outing with deadly aliens or robots or alien robots. Or even just hanging out. It means they're part of something bigger than just one or two people and they're continuing a tradition or something and there's just something so swell about it that Junior feels warm fuzzies all over in his chest and can't stop grinning.

When they all go out together, Junior and Ted both use the name "Blue Beetle" and leave it to everyone else to figure out how to address them. They think it's funny and Booster Gold and Gold Star think so too, and that's what matters. It's everyone else who has trouble with it.

Usually people use numbers. Junior doesn't mind being called Blue Beetle Three, because that's how legacies are made and he's doing his part to ensure the title of Blue Beetle goes down in the history books. Ted doesn't mind if people call Junior the second Blue Beetle, but he hates being called the first. He's quick and clear and sometimes mean about correcting people, because he respected the first Blue Beetle and doesn't like the idea of him being forgotten.

Ted's kind of weird about that, but Junior kind of understands.

Sometimes he can feel them watching and when he looks they're smiling proudly and that kind of makes him want to punch out every bad guy ever and build a special jail for them on Pluto or something and kind of makes him feel like he _could_.

When he tells Gold all that she understands _completely_.

Sometimes she dyes her hair blue. "So we match," she says, grinning as she rubs the top of his blue cowl.

Junior doesn't like the cowl much, but it's made of one of the most bulletproof materials on the planet and Ted insisted. It gives him cowl-head, which is a thousand times worse than hat-head or bed-head, and sometimes it itches a little and he wonders if it would be better if he shaved his head. Then Gold ruffles his hair while the cowl is off and he can't remember why he ever thought of getting rid of it.

Gold doesn't wear a cowl, ever, but she has a forcefield. Ted and Junior (mostly Ted) designed it, based on Booster Gold's. So her hair is visible, and whips around (short as it is) when she's in action, and sometimes gets in Junior's mouth when he hugs her from behind. She laughs when he spits her hair out, and laughs harder when he makes a face because the dye makes her hair taste weird.

Sometimes she dyes her hair the _exact_ shade of brown as his and they go out in civvies and pretend they're related.

One time they were in a coffee shop and while Junior paid for their drinks she was busy looking over the selection of pastries. The guy at the register said, "Your sister's hot."

It took Junior a long minute to figure out _why_ the guy had such a strange look on his face when he'd replied, "Yeah." It was because he hadn't used the voice of a brother aware of his sister's attractiveness, he'd used the voice of a male very much _aware_ of a female's attractiveness.

He'd waited until they were out of the shop and Gold was taking a drink before telling her, just to see her squirt liquid out her nose. He hadn't been able to stop laughing the whole time she was hitting his shoulder and calling him names and laughing despite herself.

Junior's pretty sure he loves her.

Not just as a best friend, because he knows he _definitely_ loves her like that. And sometimes he thinks that even if he didn't love her as more than a best friend he might one day ask her to marry him because they're so good together.

Sometimes he hugs her, and sometimes she kisses his cheek, and sometimes they just grin at each other like they have the best secret in the world.

Junior's patrolling in Bug when Gold Star flies up and taps on the windshield, grinning a question. He motions for her to go to the hatch and opens it with a button. When she joins him at the front, she flops in the chair next to his and props her feet up on the console. She only ever does that if she knows Skeets isn't around to scold her for it and she saw him in the back as she came in.

Skeets is protective of Bug because they're sort of married somehow. No one's really sure how, but no one's willing to question it either.

"Rough day at the office, dear?" Junior teases.

"Where's my pipe and slippers, sweetheart?" Gold snarks back. She likes old sitcoms as much as he does and if there weren't already plenty of other reasons he would like her for that alone.

Junior snickers. "How's the new Robin working out?" Sometimes they mentor for the Teen Titans. Gold Star's been pulling in extra hours at the tower lately.

Gold blows out a breath and runs a hand through her (blond) hair. "Hyper? Hectic? A hassle?"

"And Batman puts up with it?" Junior asks, frowning a little in confusion. Bats are notorious for their discipline. Even if the current Batman isn't the original, maybe _because_ he isn't the original, Junior can't imagine him letting a Robin act like that.

Grinning secretively, Gold leans toward him as Junior obligingly does the same. "He doesn't have a choice," she whispers, then sing-songs, "It's a speeeeed-ster."

Junior's eyes widen along with a grin. "He didn't."

"_Oh_ but he did." Gold's expression promises regular reports of the drama that will no doubt soon unfold.

Junior laughs and Gold laughs with him and he thinks hopefully of generations of Blue and Gold laughter.

He wonders if it ever sounds this perfect to his dads when _they_ laugh together.

He likes to think it does.


End file.
